Blair Collection > Celtic magazine > Volume 11

Tree Myths and Forest Lore. 265
slept under the shade of a rose-tree, and, feehng grateful, offered
'to do it a service. At its request, he threw over the roses a veil
jofmoss." Hence the moss-like growth on the calyx of the moss-
'■■ rose.
The Cotton-tree is contemptuously spoken of in Hindoo songs,
because it has no smell and gives no fruit fit for food to man or
; monkey. Agassiz tells a strange story as current in Brazil : — " Cava
'Sacaibu, the first of men, was a demi-god. His son, Prairu, an
inferior being, obeyed the orders of his father, who hated him.
In order to get rid of him, Sacaibu made an armadillo and stuck
it in the earth, leaving its tail on the surface, after rubbing it with
mistletoe ; then he ordered his son to bring the armadillo to him ;
but the animal pulled him down through the earth. But Prairu
managed to get back again, and told his father he had seen men
and women under-ground, who might be brought up to till the
I earth. Sacaibu went down to see for himself, having woven a
I cotton cord, to produce which he had sown cotton seed for the
j first time. The first men whom he drew up with the cotton cord
Iwere short and ugly; but, the more he drew up, the better and
I taller they grew, until the cord broke, and the finest specimens of
humanity were thus left for ever underground. This is why, in
this world, beauty is so rare an endowment."
(To be continued.)
TO THE EDITOR OF THE "CELTIC MAGAZINE."
Dear Sir, — In my short notice of the late Mr. Henry Bradshaw, there are two small
misprints, which you will, perhaps, allow me to correct. The word "gentlemen,"
, on page 231, seven lines from the foot of the page, should be printed "gentleman " ;
and, at the close of my paper, the sentence — " Mr. Bradshaw was born on February
, 2, 183 1, and died at the early age of 54 " — should read simply " Mr. Bradshaw was
I born on February 2, 1831." The way in which this last mistake originated may be
, taken as an illustration of the origm and life-history of a large class of curious typo-
■ graphic blunders. The first sheets sent you, stated, on the authority of the Times
■ obituary, that — "Mr. Bradshaw died at the early age of 54"; but, in the supple-
mentary sheet which followed, I was able to correct this mistake, and to give the
exact date of Mr. Bradshaw's birth. " I, accordingly, closed this supplementary
■. sheet with the words — "Mr. Bradshaw was born on February 2, 1831." But the
printer put these two things together, with the result of begetting a very curious
arithmetical prodigy.
Of this, I do not at all complain. You had no time to send me a proof ; and,
i moreover, my paper was, of necessity, very hurriedly written. In these circumstances,
' it is much to the credit of your press that the misprints should be so few. — I am,
yours faithfully, DoXALU MassuN.
Edinburgh, March 3, 1886.